Thinking About Things: Sepember 24, 2017

We are now embroiled in a great controversy about how much respect to pay our national anthem. It is fitting and proper that we do so. Let's think about it.

It doesn’t bother me. I served my country and will never apologize for the matter in which I do or don’t respect her. Those who are watching the Ken Burns/ Lynn Novick documentary on the Vietnam War are seeing evidence that my country sent me into one of the worst strategic blunders in its history. One is free to make up one’s mind as to whether the adventure was immoral or illegal. For me, both at the time and in retrospect, it was both.

But I served. And because of that, I’ll stand or not stand for a human-inspired musical rendition of my country’s worth. And I’ll allow others to do as they see fit as well. Their path to this moment has been different from mine, and that demands empathy.

For example, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be a man of African-American descent, during my lifetime

A man of my age would have heard their father, a grown man working to provide for his family, called a “boy.”

That person would have attended a substandard school.

That person, having served his country as I did, would have been denied housing of his choice upon return from war.

That person would have seen a presidential aspirant, telecasting a “Southern-Strategy, announce his candidacy in the Mississippi city in which four civil rights were murdered for attempting to register people of his color to vote.

That person, upon entering the job market, would have been denied good jobs and promotions.

The list goes on and on. For women of color, it would have been worse.

With that as a background, the respect paid the national anthem recedes in importance as an issue. Yuval Noah Harari, in his book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind suggests that our species requires mythology at a certain point to maintain an expansion of our group development. If true, then the myths surrounding patriotic fervor are as much utilitarian as they are morality-based. Showing an almost worshipful respect for a national anthem for example can help a society expand its importance.

To me, it would depend upon the circumstance. At a memorial service for those who stormed the beaches at Normandy, I will stand tall and proud.

For a ceremony celebrating the passage of the Civil Rights Act, I would stand tall and proud, as I would for many other ceremonies celebrating the great moments of our nation’s history as I see them.

For celebrating those activities or individuals that demean or trivialize honor, respect, and duty, I might take a walk. For those celebrating anyone who would seek to destroy the institutions that have guided America through her greatest moments, I might even sit on my butt.

At this moment, we Americans will take sides once more. A percentage of them will choose to show respect for our symbols without restraint. A percentage will continue to protest. Neither change nor contemplation will change those minds. The important group, the group that includes me, will use this opportunity to reflect upon the challenge, and push ourselves to amend and improve our country.

That, it seems to me, would be a good and proper thing.

Just thinking …